Dek Unu Magazine September 2019 Ricardo Imperatore

D: u 11 u Magazii i

September, 2019

Ricardo Imperatore

“Gamboa’s Dreams”

Images ©Ricardo Imperatore

Dek

Unu

Magazine

Images: ©Ricardo Imperatore
©Dek Unu Arts. 2019

Eleven

This is Dek Unu Magazine. In Esperanto, dek unu means
"eleven." Eleven Images from a single artist. Eleven artists in
eleven solo issues each year.

Dek Unu publishes the work of a new photoartist in each issue.
The artist's work and words are featured alone and in individual
focus as the sole purpose for each issue of the magazine.

Unlike other arts and letters magazines which might look for
work from a variety of artists to support an editorial staffs
theme, at Dek Unu, theme and imagery are always each
artist’s own.

This Month

The best camera is the one you have with you. Or, as a
good friend and teacher professes, the only true requirement
of a photographer is to “Be there and be packing." This
month's feature, multi-disciplinary artist Ricardo Imperatore,
uses only what he calls a “Jurassic” iPad and an iPhone 6 to
tell the story of Gamboa, Little Africa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
His street photography, shot off-hand and “in the midst,” is
the opposite of the lush images of rain forests and samba
dancers in the travel brochures that condition the sense that
most Northerners have of Brazil. His photos and first-person
commentary describe the failure of an experiment in urban
renewal, his attempt to make a home and studio in Gamboa,
and the memory of the neighborhood that others have since
forgotten. trt

GAMBOA, “LITTLE AFRICA,” RIO DE JANEIRO.

Between the end of the eighteenth century and much of the
nineteenth century, Gamboa was a pleasant and picturesque
suburb, chosen by the aristocracy of Rio de Janeiro as a place
for their farms and palaces.

The Gamboa neighbourhood is the site of the Cemiterio dos
Pretos Novos (New Black Cemetery), also known as the New
Blacks Memorial. Between 1769 and 1830, it was a slave cemetery. It is estimated that
between 20,000 and 30,000 slaves are buried there. Between 1500 and 1856, one out of
every five people in the world who were enslaved set foot in Rio de Janeiro, more precisely,
in Gamboa.

Ex-slaves were recruited by the government for the War of Canudos (1897) with promises that
after victory, each “volunteer” would receive a house as payment. Well, we know what
governments and their promises are like. The authorities didn’t honor their promises, so ex¬
slaves took Morro da Providencia (Providence Hill) to build houses without the government’s
help or approval, giving birth to the first favela (slum / ghetto) in Brazil. The name “favela” came
from a plant found in battlefields in Bahia where the so-called “volunteers” had fought and died
for “their” beloved “homeland.”

In 2011, anticipating a $30 billion (USD) injection of resources from the 2014 World Cup and
2016 Olympics, City Hall made a huge plan for massive reform and urban revitalization for
Gamboa and the neighbourhoods. Promises were made. Artists, like me, moved into the
“eye of the hurricane” to take advantage of an opportunity for studio space in a new, transformed
community. I was among the first to move in. But, as happened 100 years before, promises
were broken, chaos came to Gamboa and, in 2019, black people from Favela da Providencia
are still dying, now being killed by police. Familiar, eh?

Me? I, myself, was beaten by police one night just because I was walking late in the night.

And yes, they were high on alcohol and cocaine... They beat me, took my money, the whole
pack. This was the trigger that made me start making photos of Gamboa, a forgotten
neighbourhood and its wonderful people.

Gamboa Sunset

Gamboa Sunset

Rio, poor Rio. “It’s never so bad that it can’t get worse” is a popular saying. It is a total mess.
Drug trafficking among kids. 500 families in a space meant for 10. Violence and misery all
around. More than 60,000 gun deaths in 2018. The state governor opened fire from a military
chopper on “suspects” in a favela last month. (Miracle: no one died). The mayor, who is Bishop
of Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, survived a recent call for impeachment. And all five
of the previous state governors are in jail. On top of all that, our President..”Narrow-minded
Maybe-No-Brains-At-AII Stupid Tropical Trump”... Jair Messias Bolsonaro signed a new law
this year that makes it much easier for people to buy and carry guns. Genius. Rio is triple
fucked. Honestly, I don’t see a way out. Not in 50 years.

Despite all of that... Gamboa is magical, mystical. One can’t describe the feelings that go
through the heart and soul when walking in the area. So much cultural history: Pedra do Sal,
site of an original quilombo village, center of “Little Africa,” birthplace of the samba, birthplace
of Brazil’s Carnaval. (I can tell you, I’ve been there, and it’s pure joy and love.) Despite all that...
the people from Gamboa gave the world a very special gift, endless happiness.

When the city and state governments targeted the portuary zone of Rio for a colossal
transformation, I was happy to be one of the first artists to settle my big loft/studio/home
there, in an old industrial storage building. But we are in Brazil! Due to greed, speculation and
government corruption, the bubble burst, many of us had to leave, and I suffer, to this day, when
I think how very happy I was there.

As one moved inside my loft, that slot, empty of glass
in the window frame, revealed many different views of
Gamboa. I never fixed the hole. I let the wind and rain
come inside. It was fun to interact with the elements.
There were some days and nights that the wind and
rain could reach almost every part of the loft.

Slot 1

Slot 1

Tool Kitty

Sleeping Beauty is her name. Given by the owner of this
very humble hardware store, located in Gamboa, Rio. He’s
a very nice guy with a enormous sense of humor. He loves
that cat. But it’s a fact that Tool Kitty lives inside his hardware
store and...sleeps ..all day...long. According to him, even if
a tiny little mouse passes under her nose, she won’t move a
single hair of her kitty moustache. He says that Sleeping
Beauty is not waiting for a prince’s kiss, but to be hammered.

Tool Kitty

Screen Jams

In Japan, US, Europe... It would be just trash ( lixo ). Not in
Gamboa. Jurassic monitors have a destination. All this goes
to e-lixo-rj.com.br/, the national electronic waste recycling
cooperative. Probably public schools will receive them after
anything that works has been separated from the trash.

In Brazil, public schools are, in general, very poor
in equipment and gear and facilities for the students.

Screen Jams

We are at Gamboa, Little Africa. The right model
for the right people. When I work, I like to make
contact with my subjects. I talk to them. For
instance, I even kissed the model for this photo.

Local

Local

Raimundo, the guy playing pool, is always ready "to go" as
he is the delivery guy for Bar dos Amigos. Helmet is on, every
single moment. No time to lose.

Game Over

Game Over

Moving

This one is of a girlfriend, inside the loft I was renting, as I was
moving out. A sad day.

Two years before the end of the lease, the owner of the building
ripped the rental contact to pieces, right in front of my unbelieving
eyes. He was going to sell the building once that area was reformed.
City Hall promises... In order to push all the tenants out as quickly
as possible, he cut the water supply for the entire building. During
the next months, as I was trying to resist this absurd expulsion, I
had to buy 200 gallons of water.

The water was being sold 100 meters from my place. The guy who
was selling water was the same guy who was also selling other
products. Including crack cocaine. “What are you up up to?” he
used to ask me. “Death or life? Water or crack?”

I made videos of the water operation as evidence and brought a lawsuit against the owner.
I lost the case... Power of money versus a “crazy” artist.

After

Moving

WTF

The lady in the picture lives on the street, very near to the exit from a heavy
traffic tunnel. It is very hard to breathe at that spot. Crossing through
that tunnel, many times, I have had to put something, a t-shirt, for instance,
over my nose to filter as much as possible the particles of the extremely
polluted air.

I can’t understand how she is even alive, living at that spot, taking that air,
all day long. Every day. She lives in her own world.

Below, the dirty glass emulates the color of the polluted atmosphere. Sometimes
the air indeed is the color of dirty glass. It reminds me of the color of air in
China, Sao Paulo, London.

Slot 2

WTF

WTF2

I am a musician, DJ, music producer and sometimes actor. Due to these
activities, it’s very normal for me to be working by night. Therefore, many
times I would come back to sleep at my studio/loft/home at very late hours
or, often, in the morning. This fellow, a nice creature, used to live inside
the building. What we had in common was the fact that he, like me, is a
nocturnal being.

So every morning I used to open the doors for this guy so he could enter the
building and rest from whatever he was up to during the nights. He looks at
me like...’’Open the bloody door! I need to take my nap.”

WTF 2

The only girl and the sunshine light at Bar dos Amigos.
She’s always there. The men, the customers, used to offer
her drinks and snacks for favours. Special favours.

I asked for a picture... she said, “It’s OK.”

It’s OK

It’s OK

Carnaval Kids

Kids? Well kids are kids. They just want to have fun. For this photo, I looked at the
children and made a face and asked them, “When I count to 3, everyone do the face!
Ok? 1...2...3... “ Click! And you can see that four of them are smiling, but there are
2 girls that imitated my face exactly.

Claude Levi-Strauss, considered one of the greatest ethnologists of all time, lived in
Brazil for some years. "Brazil is the most important experience of my life," said
Levi-Strauss in 2005. As an ethnologist his fascinating target of study was the mix
that Brazilian people were and still are. In fact we are a mix of races I have never
seen elsewhere.

And Carnaval time is the perfect time to keep mixing...

Caranaval Kids

Interview - Ricardo Imperatore

Hi, Ricardo. What a pleasure to get to know you and a different
view of Rio from the one we usually see!

Yes. I am a boy from Ipanema! Although I'm now based in Lisbon
and have been able to travel all over the world, this photo series is
the story of my home and my life in Gamboa, Rio, at a dramatic time
in its history..

©GuiMaia

You are a multi-disciplinary artist. How did you get started?

I'm a musician, DJ, music producer and sometimes actor, as well as
a photographer. The shot above is of me, in character, for the
role of a criminal bad ass in the Fox series "One Against All”.
htt ps://www.imdb.com/title/tt5822138/

I was studying Geology when I, for the first time, sat behind a drum
kit. One week later, I was studying music and had passed the point
of no return from a life in the arts.

After many gigs as a drummer and percussionist and
collaborations with many artists during the 1990’s, (the
Smartphoneless Era), I dove into my solo work, the boTECOeletro
Project, playing a fusion of Brazilian rhythms and contemporary
electronic music. Doing great. I won prizes, got cool gigs and tours
(UK, USA, Europe, and Africa), and did sound design and
production engagements for many others from 2000-2012.

Then, to take advantage of the opportunity to build an awesome
studio as part of government urban renewal, I moved to Gamboa,
Little Africa. When I tell the things I've been through in Gamboa,
really... most people probably think that I’m inventing But reality
overcomes fiction in places like that. Gamboa is "real fiction.”

How did you first get into photography?

Curiously, it was while I was making videos during a trip in the
Amazon rain forest that the "click” happened. It was in 2005.1 had
this dv camera and started to make videos of the breathtaking
landscapes, people and environment. The result was surprisingly
good and special, so much so that a VJ working with me used the
material in one of the best concerts I ever did. Since then, I started
to be more and more interested in visual arts

Some street photographers camp out and wait for action,
others prowl around, relying on quick reflexes. Which are you?

I definitely prowl around. When I’m taking pictures, I feel that I am
the same guy who is doing a concert on a stage. I love being
among the audience. I love playing the drums in the middle of the
audience during the shows. I guess it’s the same when I’m in the
streets asking people to take pictures Keep ears and eyes wide
opened if you want to tell stories Go outside. Go walk on the
streets. Know people Talk to people. Listen to people. Being an
artist is to be outside and in contact.

Most artists dream of having a loft. Enough space to live,
work, and store ail their paraphernalia in the same place.

There was this girlfriend, Carolina Herszenhut, who works in
fashion. She was the one who told me there were junk units
available for rent in a trashy industrial building in a neighbourhood
that was up for urban renewal.That was great news. As she knew
that I was homeless during that period, she did me a great favor.

There were eight floors, mine was the top. I
was terrified by the place’s conditions.
There was no need for security because. I
guess, the building was so trashy that even
burglars didn't even think about it.

Luckily, a close friend, Celso (nicknamed)
"Negao," a former gangster from Favela
do Turano. was my "faz tudo " which
means he is able to fix things, paint
houses, fix hydraulic and electrical
systems and whatever else might need
repair. It took Celso three months to
transform that insalubrious facility into my
mini paradise.Those were awesome times.
Our friendship grew even closer.

The original rent was fair, considering the decrepit quality of the
place But, a year and a half later, trying to get everybody out of
the building so he could sell it, the owner. Antonio Governo, an
un-cool Portuguese guy, raised the rent 400%. Eventually, I was
the only human in residence. When the landlord shut off the
electricity, all were forced out. But, guess what! As it developed,
the street was excluded from renewal, he never could sell, and
the place is still empty, rotting day by day

You loved your quirky neighborhood and miss it plenty!

The dream is gone The first tram rails, in Rio and Brazil, were
finally constructed to connect Gamboa, the main bus station, the
Centre, and the domestic airport Just 3 years later, the company
which ran it was shutting the services down because government
had bailed out The most recent state governor, ironically named
"Cabral," for the man who "discovered" Brazil, and his associates
broke the state and the city, stealing 50 billion dollars All of the
billion dollar facilities constructed for the World Cup and the
Olympics are TOTALLY abandoned, rotting day by day instead of
serving the people of Rio. Everything is ROTTING including
public hospitals, public schools, public gardens, public security,
public museums, public transportation, etc., etc., etc.

The street (above) is my neighbourhood. Forgotten. Rio is a
devastated city. People have shut down businesses. Many have
taken informal jobs. We now have 13% unemployed. On top of
that, 50% of the unemployed have stopped looking for work. The
media call them "the discouraged."

Were there other artists who came in with you at the
beginning?

Yes : some others came to Gamboa in the same “era.” One good
example is the group, Galpao Gamboa, whose mission, through
culture, sport and health, is to create training and sociai inclusion
opportunities for residents of all ages in the poor communities of
Rio de Janeiro, such as Morro da Providencia and the districts of
the Port Zone, Gamboa, Saude. and Santo Cristo These are
brave, experienced, tough, nice, beautiful, resilient people. They
are still doing an incredible job
htt p ://gal paoaamboa.com.br/sobre.html

In the north, Brazil is seen as a center for music, but Brazilian
visual artists are not as well known. Recommendations?

Carlos Vergara is a monster! My favorite. Tantao is another
musician who is also a visual artist Underground. Tantao does not
have a site. There is a curator who says that he is Rio's Basquiat
And guess what! He did an exhibition at New Blacks Cemetery.
More about him is here:

https://www bolsadearte com/oparalelo/tantao-eu-sou-o-rio
Marcos Chaves, visual artist/photographer, from Rio
www.marcoschaves.net

Raul Mourao, visual artist, sculptor, also from Rio
htt p://www.raulmourao.com/

Derlon, from Recife, Pernambuco, graffiti and public art
htt ps://derlon.com/br/

Louise Botkay, super photographer!!!!

htt Ps://www.facebook.com/louise.botkav?sk=photos

Cabelo, singer and visual artist

htto://www. orem iopioa com/cabelo/

Carnaval means "party" in Brazil and it is well-known
around the world. Does the party transcend bad times?

In my opinion. Carnaval has become
the most important political act in
contemporary Brazilian society.

Carnaval has become, maybe, the
most important political "party" of
all. Carnaval is when Brazilians have
an "all access pass." It is when we
may say, "Hey. Mr. President! You
are a stupid asshole scumbag." It is
when you may be almost naked,
dancing, screaming, on the streets.

Whatever you want is okay. It's when
men. very macho men, become wo¬
men. dressing like women, acting
like women for one week and then
return to "normality." As if this was
possible., hahahaha!

The enduring value of Carnaval, especially in bad times, lies in
the fact that people want to have fun and forget about real life.
Using costumes and craziness, we can leave our normal daily
personas to become whatever we want. Or, as philologist Rachel
Valenca, director of the Research Center of the Casa de Rui
Barbosa Foundation, in Rio, says, "The explanation is in the
party’s own psychology, a space of inversion, in which one seeks
to be exactly what one is not in the rest of the year."

Carnaval: Ricardo, as "Exu"

You recently moved to Lisbon.

I wasn't happy with my situation in Rio. There was the big Gamboa
trauma. There was the deception with the "New Rio" that never
happened. And I received a promising offer from a music
agent/manager in Lisbon. It was a big, big : nice house facing the
Tagus. Amazing view. Awesome atmosphere There was a big music
recording studio, six desks with people working on like 10 artists. He
pitched me, "Hey, Emperor! Come to Portugal! Move to Lisbon!" I
moved in July, 2017. In December, 2017, the manager/agent went out
of business. So, I looked in the mirror and said "Shit happens. You're
already here; so, let's do it!"

How does it compare to life in Brazil

Lisbon is a safe city. Rio is tricky and may be very dangerous. One
may be in Rio and spend a year without seeing or experiencing
any violent situation whatsoever. Or one could die, 2 days later, in a
violent situation. This is a big. ENORMOUS, difference. Lisbon is a
tiny little city if compared to Rio. Rio has the same population as all
of Portugal! Lisbon is more organized. Rio is more fun. Lisbon is
scenic. Rio is indescribable

Are you with anyone you know from Brazil?

There is a Brazilian invasion currently. So. yes, I have some friends
from Brazil here. However, Portuguese people, especially
Portuguese women, with few exceptions, are not willing to socialize
with us Brazilians. Well, what remedy? Gotta be with my own
people. . . Actually, I would like to read the research on the subject-
why are these guys so closed and formal and conservative?.

Are you able to make music? Visual art / photography?

Yes, I am. There are two guys, nice guys, To Ricciardi and Silverio
Canto, who are talking and proposing work And that I appreciate.
Doing my photo stuff here as well. Always observing people on the
streets, bars, etc Always making photos. Lisbon is beautiful.

What's next? Projects? Destinations? Fantasies?

I don't know exactly what I will do next but, in my head now, the
trinomial "projects, destinations, and fantasies" means travel.
Trips! I am currently in Amsterdam. I will continue making music,
taking photos, writing and, perhaps, acting. Whatever I decide to
do next, I intend to jump right in.

How can we stay in touch with you?

Inquiries: ricardoimperatore [at] me [dot] com

Website: www.botecoeletro.com

Instagram: www.insta a ram.com/ricardo imperatore/?hl-D t

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